As a C26 Triathlon Coach, it was my turn to provide a tip for the C26 Triathlon Instagram feed today. I chose a cycling tip and gave some advice about riding hills.

Here in Western Pennsylvania, my rides outside always involve hills.  None of the climbs are very long or high, but there are a lot of them  On most rides I get about 1,500 feet of elevation gain per hour, and yet I rarely climb more than 400 feet at a time.

All this climbing, gives me lots of opportunities to practice how best to ride them.  This is where I have confirmed the tip I gave on many occasions.  It is definitely much faster overall when you power over the top of a hill.  Getting to the top of a hill, breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing is much slower.

Given many of my races have hills, I am very grateful to have the chance of riding hills, pretty much every day.